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The founder of one of the largest financial companies in Japan invested as a private individual in digital currencies at the most inopportune moment when bitcoin peaked in price. As a result, he lost millions.

Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank and famous Japanese billionaire, decided to invest in bitcoin in 2017 when the cryptocurrency market was growing by leaps and bounds. As a result, he lost more than $130 million after cashing out, the Wall Street Journal reports citing anonymous sources familiar with the situation.

The 61-year-old billionaire Masayoshi Son, who launched the world's largest venture capital fund, followed recommendations made by crypto-enthusiast Peter Brieger, whose investment company Fortress Investment Group, along with its reserves in bitcoins and other assets, was acquired by SoftBank in 2017. Fortress itself invested in bitcoins in 2013.

Son bought bitcoins at the end of 2017, and cashed out in early 2018. Then the cryptocurrency fell in price to $10,000-$15,000, but that was enough to generate a multi-million dollar loss. The exact amount invested by Son in bitcoins is not disclosed.

A SoftBank spokesman declined to comment on Son's personal investment.

Son is a Japanese legend. He even became a prototype for a main character of popular Japanese comics describing a poor boy from a Korean-Japanese family living in a poor neighborhood who manage to become one of the richest persons in the country. Under the leadership of Son, SoftBank turned into a global telecommunications and IT conglomerate. Son is known for his non-standard ideas and vision for a “computerized” future that will be smarter thanks to the control of machines.